The backs of my knees hit the mattress, and my legs bent. I dropped down and sat, his hand still on my shoulder, and studied his face. His irises, they were like chocolate-colored balls flecked with amber, so damn penetrating I found it hard to breathe. A Roman nose sprinkled with light freckles dominated his face, and cheekbones the size of my palms tapered down to a strong jaw and rigid chin. Okay, a jaw and chin covered by stubble that I wanted rasping against my skin, but strong and rigid all the same.

I wanted to fuck him. For him to fuck me.

"I need you," he repeated. "To do something. I was...drawn here. To you."

"Oh right." I continued to stare, mesmerized by the sheer size of him and the heat radiating from his hand into my shoulder, right down into the damn bone. I imagined his whole body covering me. Man, I'd burn up. "What do you need me to do?"

What could it hurt to play along, eh?

He took his hand away and closed the door. My stomach flipped. I mean, if this wasn't a dream, this was where it could turn nasty. Newspaper headlines flashed through my mind. Man gets attacked by lion. Big beast holds man prisoner for several weeks and fucks him senseless.

"I can do that too, if you like." The man, Levi, strolled over to the TV, powerful body swaggering, and switched it off.

"Um, you can?"

The room was now in semi-darkness. The only light coming in was through the door window, weak moonlight that may as well give up trying to penetrate the London sky. That was a bit of a shit, because I'd enjoyed looking at his body. And I'd wanted to see his ass for a bit longer. He turned from the TV and stood at the foot of my bed, legs apart and hands folded across his chest like he was some sort of ancient warrior. His eyes glowed orange.

Okay, I know I wanted light, but--

"I am a warrior. And I need your help."

Jesus. He could read my mind too? That's all I bloody needed. I decided to test that theory.

I want you to climb on this bed and fuck me. Come on, I dare you. Fuck me hard, big boy.

"As you wish."

What the hell?

I scooted back on the bed, huddling up by the headboard, my heart going like the damn clappers and my pulse thudding in my throat. He'd heard what I'd thought. And not only that, he was willing to do what I wanted. Since when did I get so bloody lucky?

His eyes glowed brighter. "Since I find you so attractive. Since you are destined to be my mate. That is when you got lucky."

Levi leaned over and planted his hands on the mattress. He stood in a prime position for me to go around behind him and...no, I had to stop this madness. It wasn't really happening. I wasn't here, in my apartment, with a lion who had changed into a man.

I'm not. Not, not, not.

"I am afraid you are. And we do not have much time. Tomorrow we have work to do. I came to this place, this London, to find the man I am destined to be with. Once I found him I am to... It does not matter. I have found you now. I will reveal more at first light."

"Destined to be with? You what?"

"I do not understand this 'You what?' Is that a regional term?"

"Uh, yeah. Listen, where the hell are you from? You sound...old-fashioned." God, if my body didn't stop shaking...

Levi laughed, a loud roar that almost had me crapping my pants and waiting for the neighbors to show up at my front door. "I am originally from another time. Perhaps that is why I sound alien to you. But I am here now, with you. And I am ready to make you my mate."

I glanced down his body, to his weighty cock that bobbed up and down, its hardness too tempting for words. Could I handle that? Fuck me, he was bigger than the dildo Rick's last permanent girlfriend left behind after she moved out. And that was saying something. That sucker was huge.

"I will not hurt you. I am able to...adjust myself to fit."

Adjust himself to fit? What, is his cock like some kind of tool he can make bigger or smaller?

"Something like that. Come. Let me make you mine."